Tamil Nadu CM 'Thalapathy' Vijay Drives His Toyota Land Cruiser LC300 [Video]
Most politicians in India, including all the Chief Ministers of states in the country, are seen getting driven around in their ultra-luxury sedans and SUVs. However, recently, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and the megastar of the Tamil movie industry, Vijay Chandrasekaran Joseph Vijay, or Thalapathy Vijay, has done something which is not seen being done by any Chief Minister. What happened was, instead of letting his designated driver drive, he chose to sit behind the steering wheel of his Toyota Land Cruiser LC300 luxury SUV.
The video showing the actor and current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu himself driving his Toyota Land Cruiser LC300 has been shared on Instagram by Murali Mahesh Beats on their page. In this short clip, we can note that after a white-colored Toyota Fortuner and a few black CM security convoy Toyota Innova Crystas passed a toll booth, the black-colored Toyota Land Cruiser LC300 of Vijay came into the frame.
Soon after this, the video then zooms onto this Land Cruiser LC300, and it can be seen that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Vijay, himself was driving this LC300. The vehicle was equipped with a national flag at the front, and it was also equipped with red and blue LED lights. What was also surprising is that on most occasions, Chief Ministers and other politicians are driven on the road in their luxury cars with their windows fully closed.
However, Vijay was driving with both of his front windows open and was also waving at the people who were standing at the toll booth waiting for him to cross it. This is one of the very rare occasions where a sitting Chief Minister has been seen driving his SUV while driving around with the official Z+ security convoy.
For those who may be wondering, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and megastar Vijay was driving his official convoy vehicle, the Toyota Land Cruiser LC300, on his way to the historic Kollur Sri Mookambika Temple in the Udupi district of Karnataka. Vijay drove his LC300 on the 130 km road trip after landing at the Mangaluru International Airport. He went to offer prayers and a 1.6 kg silver sword to the deity.
From what we can observe, the Toyota Land Cruiser LC300 in which Vijay Thalapathy gets driven around does not seem to be a bulletproof vehicle. The reason behind this assessment is that the SUV was being driven with the windows open. However, most of the bulletproof vehicles that are part of a VVIP convoy have extremely thick windows. Also, in most cases, the bulletproof windows cannot be rolled down.
Also, it is likely that Vijay’s Land Cruiser LC300 is not bulletproof because there is no official protocol which says that a Chief Minister has to be driven around in a bulletproof vehicle. Whether the vehicle needs to be bulletproof or not is decided by State Intelligence and Police Security Wings, and it is completely based on localized threat perceptions.
Before being elected as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Vijay used to get driven around in a Land Rover Defender 110 finished in black color. This particular luxury SUV is part of his personal car collection. He also owns a BMW i7 luxury sedan and also used to own a Rolls Royce Ghost, along with many other luxury cars in his collection.